[Spring/summer 2013]
A thematic section on public art featuring the works of nicolas baier, dominique auerbacher, and patrick dionne and Miki gingras, highlighting the issues of community affirmation in the public space and the revelation, or contestation, of its customs and regulations. Somewhere between group portrait, “objective” self-portrait, and urban anti-aesthetic . . .
NICOLAS BAIER
Autoportrait
A sculptural work that retains from the photographic the notions of imprint and index and whose forms, surfaces, and materials refer to the context of its integra- tion – whence the notion of self-portrait, an objective self-portrait in a sense, in that the work is an intensified representation of how its context is defined: office work and archi- tectural modernity. With its glass casing, its furniture, and its high-tech devices with multiplied reflections, the work materializes the functional and symbolic values of the site.
with an essay by Sylvain Campeau
DOMINIQUE AUERBACHER
Scratches
These works, which highlight a certain kind of public art, have the merit of being situated in diametrical opposition to graffiti art that would be simply transposed into the gallery or contained in an urban space designated by the authorities. how do we take account of an amateur art activity that wildly appropriates the city by defying urban design, if not by recognizing its initial context of inscription and thus shedding light on the prescriptions that define the use of the public space?
with an essay by Emmanuel Hermange
PATRICK DIONNE ET MIKI GINGRAS
Identité Centre-Sud
An image-based practice intended to be the instrument of a community affirmation, based on sharing knowledge and offering an active aesthetic experience. a large fresco composed of individual portraits (almost self-portraits), featuring personalities, involvements, values, and struggles of inhabitants of a disadvantaged neigh- bourhood. this group portrait is presented in a monumental format on the façade of the neighbourhood’s cultural centre, thus becoming an intervention in the “public sphere.”
with an essay by Pierre Rannou